Redesigned User Interface

We redesigned the user interface for a cleaner, more intuitive experience. There’s a new layout, a whole new set of icons, cursors, and fonts, a brand new Home menu with generated thumbnails for previewing simulations, and a lot more. The interface is constantly being improved, but we’re very happy with the direction it is now heading.

Improved Performance

We rewrote physics from the bottom-up for much better performance. Physics also now runs asynchronously from other components, which means that even if it is busy with a ton of calculations, the user interface and camera should still be completely responsive.

New Dynamic Soundtrack

Universe Sandbox ² now features a soundtrack which responds to actions and events in the simulation. Collide two planets and listen to the music swell. Music by Ryan Macoubrie.

Dear Dan Dixon and fellow developers, physicists, designers and other personnel in charge of Universe Sandbox2,

Thank you!! I’ve been so excited to play this version as it has many changes. I’ve been since Alpha 11-12 and The work you’ve all put in this simulator is astounding. This game has helped me cement which career I want to pursue. I want to be an astronomer and US and US2 have entertained me for months.

I would also like to ask something. Do you plan to include the gas cloud accretion simulation that you showed when on the Unity activity? It would be amazing!

The easiest way to view the new pulsars is to load the sim “Binary Pulsar.”

Or to create one, you can add a neutron star or white dwarf (such as Sirius B), open the Materials tab in its properties, then give it a magnetic field and set the axis at an angle. Experiment with these and you’ll see the “lighthouse” effect.